The NCAI is meeting in Portland this year, and I got to talking with an attendee today. We chatted about this and that, and with a neutral, reserved, tone, she mentioned the treaty violations that led to the Congress’ foundation, and the fact that some natives contest the due process of voting and election by means of which the congress proceeds. Just a quick reminder of the peoples that have not been included in the US’s “social contract” for far longer than the current generation of disaffected bourgeoisie.

It seems that the message of power has finally hit the population in the US that used to think it was allied with the ruling class, the largely white middle class. Is #ows the beginning of “white solidarity”? The ruling class was only and always allied purely with itself, and its better late than never that this truth is realized across all demographics.

This author asserts that the reason that African-Americans/Black Americans are not further involved in OWS is because it would increase their already extensive interaction with police–noting the frequent ‘stop and frisks’ that the black community experiences. Discrepancy in wealth is no new subject to the majority of black communities across the U.S.

I think that this all goes back to the unclear purpose and strategy of the ows movement. While the umbrella message of the ows movement allows for communities across the country to interpret and cater their ows movements to meet their own local needs, as a national movement, it is devoid of any precise purpose. So a few people have a lot of money…..in some regards the ows movement appears to be glorified complaining. Like any good campaign, it needs a clear purpose with achievable goals and demands. I think that the ows movement will either need to define itself nationally, or transform itself into a call for grassroots change before black, latino and muslim communities will back the movement. Because as the author notes, as a minority citizen, why put yourself in an even more compromising position when the final goal might not be personally worth it?

If the purpose is in fact to open up community dialogues about the next course of action, and minority communities are not showing up because of a history of racial profiling and police brutality, then once again we encounter the white majority setting the rules—even if they are new rules.

Nevertheless the primary point of the article is that the white protesters need to change their rhetoric to be more inclusive and to frame the movement as one that encompasses people across the nation.

“Comparing debt to slavery, believing police won’t hurt you, or wanting to take back the America you see as rightfully yours are things that suggest OWS is actually appealing to an imagined white (re)public. Rather than trying to figure out how to diversify the Occupy Wall Street movement, white progressives need to think long and hard about their use of frameworks and rhetoric that situate blacks at the margins of the movement.”

It’s difficult to adopt smarter rhetoric because communism/Marxism in the US is severely frowned upon and will only further alienate potential supporters outside the lefty circle. We cannot make appeals to the working class as such because then we are “statist socialists.” Right now, #ows is working with a brand of democratic-socialism that is left of center and mostly consists of dissatisfied Democrats.

However, the lack of a neatly packaged political agenda is what makes #ows so courageous. People are pulling back from the dichotomies we are expected to chose between, such as socialism or capitalism, Blue state or Red state, Coke or Pepsi, and they are asking for a radical reappraisal of “the party line”.

Clearly, this process is messy. However, I think the focus on horizontal organization and economic equality is already a good start. What is needed is simply to continue the dialogue and expand it.

As you said Cody, “minorities” don’t have an incentive to get involved, and for that matter neither do most well meaning “normal” people. These groups don’t identify with the archetypal #ows protester.

The scene at #ows is still on the skitz to being a fashion show for leftists, and more demographics need to be represented. #ows intends to be the power of “the people” and to that end it needs to get more ordinary before it can effect change. I hope that we are already on that road, #ows has gone from being ignored by the media to being the trending topic across the board, it has also promised longevity by way of an indefinite occupation. If this keeps up we will move from “early adopters” to “regular consumers” and #ows will have a powerful base that can manifest both grassroots projects and a massive voting block that politicians will have to contend with.